U.S. patent application number 12/631323 was filed with the patent office on 2010-06-10 for apparatus and method for generating secret key.
This patent application is currently assigned to Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. Invention is credited to Hyunsook CHO, Doo Ho CHOI, You Sung KANG.
Application Number | 20100142708 12/631323 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 42231079 |
Filed Date | 2010-06-10 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100142708 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
KANG; You Sung ; et
al. |
June 10, 2010 |
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR GENERATING SECRET KEY
Abstract
An apparatus for generating a secret key generates the secret
key by using information of a mobile RFID terminal, transmits the
generated secret key to an RFID tag attached on an article, and
decrypts a unique item identifier of the article encrypted by using
the generated secret key after receiving the unique item identifier
of the article encrypted by using the secret key from the RFID tag.
By this configuration, it is possible to protect user's personal
privacy of the mobile RFID terminal in a state where user's
intervention is minimized.
Inventors: |
KANG; You Sung; (Daejeon,
KR) ; CHOI; Doo Ho; (Cheonan-si, KR) ; CHO;
Hyunsook; (Daejeon, KR) |
Correspondence
Address: |
LAHIVE & COCKFIELD, LLP;FLOOR 30, SUITE 3000
ONE POST OFFICE SQUARE
BOSTON
MA
02109
US
|
Assignee: |
Electronics and Telecommunications
Research Institute
Daejeon
KR
|
Family ID: |
42231079 |
Appl. No.: |
12/631323 |
Filed: |
December 4, 2009 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
380/270 ;
340/10.42; 380/283 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06K 7/0008 20130101;
G06K 19/07309 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
380/270 ;
340/10.42; 380/283 |
International
Class: |
H04L 9/08 20060101
H04L009/08 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Dec 5, 2008 |
KR |
10-2008-0123313 |
Mar 16, 2009 |
KR |
10-2009-0022305 |
Claims
1. An apparatus for generating a secret key in a mobile radio
frequency identification (RFID) terminal, comprising: an encryption
unit generating the secret key by using information of the mobile
RFID terminal; a communication unit transmitting the generated
secret key to an RFID tag attached on an article and receiving a
unique item identifier encrypted by using the secret key from the
RFID tag; and a decryption unit providing information of the
article by decrypting the encrypted unique item identifier of the
article by using the generated secret key.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the information of the mobile
RFID terminal includes a phone number and an electronic serial
number of the mobile RFID terminal, and the encryption unit
generates the secret key by hashing the concated number after
concatenating the phone number and the electronic serial
number.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a group index
receiving unit receiving group index information operating as a
password at the time of decrypting the unique item identifier of
the article from a user, wherein the encryption unit generates the
secret key by additionally using the group index information.
4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein: the information of the mobile
RFID terminal includes the phone number and the electronic serial
number of the mobile RFID terminal, wherein the encryption unit
generates the secret key by hashing the concated number after
concatenating the phone number and the electronic serial number and
the group index information.
5. A method for generating a secret key in a mobile radio frequency
identification (RFID) terminal, comprising: generating a secret key
by using the information of the mobile RFID terminal; transmitting
the generated secret key to an RFID tag attached on an article;
receiving the encrypted unique item identifier of the article from
the RFID tag by using the secret key; and providing the information
of the article to a user by decrypting the encrypted unique item
identifier by using the generated secret key.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein: the information of the mobile
RFID terminal at least includes a phone number and an electronic
serial number of the mobile RFID terminal, the generating step
includes, concatenating the phone number and the electronic serial
number of the mobile RFID terminal; and hashing the concatenated
number of the phone number and the electronic serial number.
7. The method of claim 5, further comprising: receiving first group
index information from the user, wherein the secret key is
generated by additionally using the first group index information
in addition to the information of the mobile RFID terminal.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims priority to and the benefit of
Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2008-0123313 and 10-2009-0022305
filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Dec. 5, 2008
and Mar. 16, 2009, the entire contents of which are incorporated
herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] (a) Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method
for generating a secret key.
[0004] (b) Description of the Related Art
[0005] A mobile RFID terminal reads a unique item identifier (UII)
of an RFID tag by incorporating and mounting an RFID reader in a
portable terminal so as to provide various mobile RFID application
services to a user. The portable terminal in which the RFID reader
is incorporated or mounted is referred to as a mobile RFID
terminal. The most general example of the mobile RFID environment
includes the mobile RFID terminal and in an environment where the
RFID tag is attached to a movie poster, when a user touches the
mobile RFID terminal onto the RFID tag, the user can receive
information on the corresponding movie through the mobile RFID
terminal.
[0006] Another example of the mobile RFID environment may include
an environment in which the RFID tag is attached to medicines
prescribed by a doctor. In this case, the user who has the medicine
prescribed by the doctor can receive information on the medicine
and a dosage method by reading the RFID tag by using the mobile
RFID terminal. However, when the user purchases an RFID-attached
personal article such as the medicine, not an opened public
article, a malicious attacker may arbitrarily read the UII of the
article through an RFID tag of the article which the user
purchases. At this time, since the read UII has a unique value
according to a predetermined rule, the attacker can substantially
determine an article type of the article purchased by the user and
determine the position of the reader reading the RFID tag, thereby
causing invasion of privacy in that a movement path of the user can
be tracked.
[0007] As a result, protection of the personal privacy of the user
who uses the mobile RFID terminal is necessarily required. For
this, identification of the RFID tag attached to a personally owned
article and acquisition of information need to be protected by
using a secret key which only an article owner can utilizes.
However, when a process of creating the secret key is complicated
and user's intervention is required, utilization of a service using
the mobile RFID terminal will be deteriorated.
[0008] The above information disclosed in this Background section
is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the
invention and therefore it may contain information that does not
form the prior art that is already known in this country to a
person of ordinary skill in the art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] The present invention has been made in an effort to provide
an apparatus and a method for generating a secret key capable of
generating the secret key by minimizing user's intervention.
[0010] An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides an
apparatus for generating a secret key of a mobile radio frequency
identification (RFID) terminal. The secret key generating apparatus
includes an encryption unit, a communication unit, and a decryption
unit. The encryption unit generates the secret key by using
information of the mobile RFID terminal, the communication unit
transmits the generated secret key to an RFID tag attached on an
article, and receives a unique item identifier of the article
encrypted by using the secret key from the RFID tag. In addition,
the decryption unit provides information of the article to a user
by decrypting the encrypted unique item identifier of the article
by using the generated secret key.
[0011] Another embodiment of the present invention provides a
method for generating a secret key in a mobile radio frequency
identification (RFID) terminal. The secret key generating method
includes: generating a secret key by using the information of the
mobile RFID terminal; transmitting the generated secret key to an
RFID tag attached on an article; receiving the encrypted unique
item identifier of the article from the RFID tag by using the
secret key; and providing the information of the article to a user
by decrypting the encrypted unique item identifier by using the
generated secret key.
[0012] According to an embodiment of the present invention, since a
user does not need to memorize or manage a secret key for each RFID
tag, it is possible to minimize user's intervention and support
protection of personal privacy.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a mobile RFID
environment adopted in the present invention;
[0014] FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams illustrating an apparatus for
generating a secret key according to first and second embodiment of
the present invention, respectively;
[0015] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for generating a
secret key of a mobile RFID terminal according to an embodiment of
the present invention; and
[0016] FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a UII encryption method of
an RFID tag using a secret key generated by an apparatus for
generating the secret key according to an embodiment of the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
[0017] In the following detailed description, only certain
exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been shown and
described, simply by way of illustration. As those skilled in the
art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in
various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or
scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and
description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not
restrictive. Like reference numerals designate like elements
throughout the specification.
[0018] In the specification and the appended claims, unless
explicitly described to the contrary, the word "comprise" and
variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood
to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of
any other elements. In addition, the terms "-er", "-or", "module",
and "block" described in the specification mean units for
processing at least one function and operation, and can be
implemented by hardware components or software components and
combinations thereof.
[0019] Hereinafter, an apparatus and a method for generating a
secret key according to an embodiment of the present invention will
be described in detail with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
[0020] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a mobile RFID
environment adopted in the present invention.
[0021] Referring to FIG. 1, the mobile radio frequency
identification (RFID) environment may be constituted by a portable
terminal incorporated or mounted with an RFID reader, that is, an
RFID terminal 10 and an article (i.e., medicine) 20 attached with
an RFID tag 200. Therefore, when the RFID reader of the mobile RFID
terminal 10 reads the RFID tag 200 attached to the article 20 which
a user who uses the mobile RFID terminal 10 purchases, the RFID
reader can read a unique item identifier (hereinafter, referred to
as "UII") of the article 20 from the RFID tag 200. The UII as a
unique value having a predetermined rule includes information on
the corresponding article 20. Accordingly, the user of the mobile
RFID terminal 10 can receive the information on the corresponding
article 20 through the mobile RFID terminal 10. At this time, the
mobile RFID terminal 10 according to the embodiment of the present
invention includes a secret key generating apparatus 100 for
protecting user's personal privacy.
[0022] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus for generating
a secret key according to a first embodiment of the present
invention.
[0023] Referring to FIG. 2, the secret key generating apparatus 100
includes an encryption unit 110, a communication unit 120, and a
decryption unit 130.
[0024] When the user puts the mobile RFID terminal 10 to the RFID
tag, the encryption unit 110 generates the secret key by hashing
the concatenated number after concatenating a phone number and an
electronic serial number (ESN) of the mobile terminal RFID terminal
10. That is, if the phone number of the RFID terminal 10 is
010-0001-0001 and the electronic serial number of the mobile RFID
terminal 10 is 80000000, a secret key of 32 bits is generated by
hashing the concatenated number of 01000010001 and 80000000.
[0025] The communication unit 120 transmits the generated secret
key to the RFID tag 200 and requests setting of the secret key to
the RFID tag.
[0026] In this case, the RFID tag 200 receives the secret key
transmitted through the communication unit 120 and encrypts the UII
of the article 20 by using the received secret key and transmits
the encrypted UII to the communication unit 120.
[0027] Further, the communication unit 120 transmits the UII
encrypted by the RFID tag 200 to the decryption unit 130.
[0028] The decryption unit 130 decrypts the encrypted UII by using
the generated secret key.
[0029] As such, when the secret key is generated by using the phone
number and the electronic serial number of the mobile RFID terminal
10, the user does not need to especially memorize or manage the
secret key.
[0030] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus for generating
a secret key according to a second embodiment of the present
invention.
[0031] Referring to FIG. 3, the secret key generating apparatus
100' has the same configuration as the secret key generating
apparatus of the first embodiment except for further including a
group index receiving unit 140.
[0032] The group index receiving unit 140 requests group index
information to the user and receives the group index information
from the user.
[0033] In this case, the encryption unit 110 generates the secret
key by hashing the concatenated number after concatenating the
phone number and the electronic serial number of the mobile RFID
terminal 10 and the received group index information. At this time,
the group index information as information such as a number, a
text, etc. which the user can directly select may be used as a
password at the time of decrypting the UII of the article 20.
[0034] That is, when the RFID tag encrypts the UII by using the
secret key generated by using the group index information, the
decryption unit 130 requests and receives the group index
information through the group index receiving unit 140 before
decrypting the UII received from the RFID tag 200, compares the
group index information used to generate the secret key with the
received group index information, and when they coincide with each
other, decrypts the unique item identification by using the
corresponding secret key.
[0035] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a method for generating a
secret key of a secret key generating apparatus according to an
embodiment of the present invention.
[0036] Referring to FIG. 4, the secret key generating apparatus 100
of a mobile RFID terminal 10 generates the secret key by hashing
the concatenated number after concatenating a phone number and an
electronic serial number of a mobile RFID terminal 10 (S410).
Meanwhile, the secret key generating apparatus 100 may generate the
secret key by hashing the concatenated number after concatenating
the phone number and the electronic serial number of the mobile
RFID terminal 10 and group index information. In this case, the
secret key generating apparatus 100 receives the group index
information which a user sets from the user (S410).
[0037] Thereafter, the secret key generating apparatus 100
transmits the generated secret key to an RFID tag 200 (S430).
[0038] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a UII encryption method
of an RFID tag using a secret key generated by an apparatus for
generating the secret key according to an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0039] Referring to FIG. 5, the mobile RFID terminal 10 transmits a
query to the RFID tag 200 to request an event (S510).
[0040] The RFID tag 200 responds with a random number of 16 bits
(RN16) in respects to the event request (S520).
[0041] When the response (RN16) in respects to the event request is
received from the RFID tag 200, the mobile RFID terminal 10
transmits the resultant response (ACK) to the RFID tag 200 (S530).
At this time, the random number of 16 bits is utilized as a
temporary ID of the RFID tag 200. That is, a plurality of RFID tags
200 may exist in the vicinity of the mobile RFID terminal 10.
However, there is no method which can discriminate the
corresponding RFID tag 200 before the UII is known. Therefore, the
mobile RFID terminal 10 receives the random number of 16 bits
(RN16) from the RFID tag 200 and sets the random number of 16 bits
(RN16) as the temporary ID of the corresponding RFID tag 200. In
addition, the mobile RFID terminal 10 always includes the random
number of 16 bits (RN16) in all commands transmitted thereafter and
transmits them. As a result, only the RFID tag 200 which responds
with the corresponding number of 16 bits (RN16) receives the
corresponding command.
[0042] Subsequently, the RFID tag 200 responds a protocol control
(PC) and an extended protocol control (XPC) (S540). At this time,
the PC and the XPC indicate information on an ability which the
RFID tag 200 itself can support. For example, the PC and the XPC
may include the size of the UII and information on the existence or
nonexistence of a memory area.
[0043] Thereafter, the mobile RFID terminal 10 requests the UII to
the RFID tag 200 (S550).
[0044] The RFID tag 200 encrypts the UII by using the received
secret key (S560) and responds to the UII request by transmitting
the encrypted UII to the secret key generating apparatus 100
(S570).
[0045] As described above, the secret key generating apparatus 100
of the mobile RFID terminal 10 according to the embodiment of the
present invention provides information on the corresponding article
to the user by decrypting the encrypted UII by using the generated
secret key.
[0046] The above-mentioned exemplary embodiments of the present
invention are not embodied only by an apparatus and/or method.
Alternatively, the above-mentioned exemplary embodiments may be
embodied by a program performing functions that correspond to the
configuration of the exemplary embodiments of the present
invention, or a recording medium on which the program is recorded.
These embodiments can be easily devised from the description of the
above-mentioned exemplary embodiments by those skilled in the art
to which the present invention pertains.
[0047] While this invention has been described in connection with
what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments,
it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the
disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover
various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within
the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
* * * * *